check out this from today's NY Times - all about the Fairway's elevator.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/31/ny...p;ref=nyregion

"famously cramped"

God that's the whole city sometimes.

I wouldn't go near Fairway or Zabar's on a Saturday morning after 8:30.

These days, Chelsea Market is a zoo with all the tourists wandering through .. it's getting fairly unpleasant trying to do any shopping in what's become a glorified food court.

Sorry, I'm a crank . . . .

Emily, click on aduchamps name and look for his wonderful post about specialty food shops.

Check out Di Palo's incredible cheese/fine foods on Grand St.

Or just take a walk across Bleecker Street from 6th Avenue to 7th Avenue for an excellent cheese monger, butchers, olive oil store, bakeries, and a fish market, all on one block.

Well I just came back from a Zabar's and Fairway run about an hour ago. Zabar's was pretty sedate, Fairway a little more busy than usual.There was ALOT of beer and chips in people's carts!
BTW, the long lines there move really quickly, but it's never a calm shopping experience.

There is an article in today's NY Times about the slow elevator to the second floor at Fairways on the Upper West Side called A Slow New York Passage, Up to Organic Food